This application for patent concerns a gas and liquid admixing system commonly known as a motorless carbonator and is an outgrowth and further development of my previous disclosure in U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,847, also a motorless carbonator. It particularly involves the carbonator tank only, and not the automatic pumping system also included in that disclosure.
The carbonator tank alone was found in recent years to have commercial application in portable outlets such as pushcarts and catering trucks for serving one dispensing valve at a time on a continuous flow basis as long as the dispensing valve is open. Water is supplied from a 5 or 10 gallon commercially available tank which is pressurized with carbon dioxide gas at 90 to 100 psi, the maximum recommended for such tanks, with the same pressure of gas also supplied to the gas inlet of the carbonator. A cold plate with ice is used usually to pre-cool water coming to the carbonator and to post-cool the carbonated water going to the dispensing valve. A flow regulator in the outlet line maintains a constant flow rate out and induces a constant flow rate into the carbonator, with the overall design providing very cold, well carbonated water at one flow rate. The supply tank of water is pressurized continuously until vented for refilling, unlike the pump tank in the original disclosure which was vented and refilled automatically with water after each drink was drawn.
Basically, the design of the carbonator tank and its components remained the same for the commercial application as shown in the original disclosure, with the float element controlling the flow of gas into the carbonator, by means of its net weight, equal to its total weight less the weight of water it displaced, resting on a gas inlet valve, restricting gas in proportion to the weight on the valve, allowing more gas in as the water level rose and restricting it more as the water level fell. Indirectly, this action also controlled the static pressure in the carbonator, as well as the flow rate of water into the tank and the level of water in the carbonator tank. Also, impact of all the inlet water on the bottom surface of the mixing well in the float was retained, the impact force being a component of the total force delivered to the gas inlet valve arrangement.
In such an application the original design of carbonator tank worked well in providing one flow rate only, with the exception that a larger float was found to be necessary to provide the additional control needed to restrict gas entering the gas inlet valve to compensate for the greater and greater amount of gas entering with the water from the pressurized tank, due to increased absorption of gas by the water over a period of time. Unless the float weight was sufficient to provide this control too much gas and too little water would enter the carbonator for the carbonator to function properly. In the original design, using a pump tank that vented after each drink was drawn, no such problem existed, the supply water never being exposed to gas for any extended period.
The new design involves, in part, a controlled relationship between the forces of impact of inlet water on the float element and of float weight, less displacement, that are transmitted to the gas inlet valve, so that each force provides the amount and type of control that is most advantageous, whether in a design for one flow rate only, two flow rates, a vertical configuration or a horizontal one. In effect, the original design has been found to make use of too much impact force on the float for optimum design and broadest application. This excessive use of impact force requires a larger diameter gas inlet orifice to produce the proper degree of control and thereby reduces the effect of a given size float and requires a larger float and tank than would otherwise be necessary.
Several alternate ways will be shown to produce the exact amount of impact force that is advantageous and to transmit it to the gas inlet valve. Also, it will be shown how the use of a smaller gas inlet orifice to work with the reduced impact force, to produce the most desirable amount of pressure differential, enhances the effectiveness of float weight. A pivoted float arrangement that enhances float weight directly will also be shown, as well as how these principles apply to the vertical and horizontal models to widen the application of the basic idea.
Reference to the detailed description that follows will further clarify the nature of the invention and its many advantages and applications.